The Semantic Watchlist extension (abbreviated as SWL) enables users to "watch", i.e. monitor changes in, properties defined by the Semantic MediaWiki extension. SWL defines a new watchlist page that lists changes to these properties. Users can choose to follow one or more watchlist groups, which are administrator defined, and cover a set of properties and a set of pages (category, namespace, or SMW concept). Notification of changes to watched properties is also possible via email.

Users often want to keep track of the changes made on a wiki. On small wikis the RecentChanges special page often suffices for this. For bigger wikis, you might only be interested in changes to some of the articles, for example those which you are knowledgeable about, or those which contain sensitive data. The MediaWiki watchlist is a great tool for watching content on per-article basis.

In semantic wikis, you might be interested in only watching changes to semantic properties that you care about. For example, on an auction wiki, the price of an item might be the only thing you are truly concerned about, on the page for that item. The Semantic Watchlist extension allows for such fine-grained watching of changes.

Configuration of Semantic Watchlist is done by setting various global variables in the LocalSettings.php file. These statements need to be placed AFTER the inclusion of Semantic Watchlist. The options, and their default values, are listed below.

Semantic Watchlist adds 2 permissions to MediaWiki: one to use the semantic watchlist (i.e. Special:SemanticWatchlist) and one that allows configuring the watchlist groups (i.e .Special:WatchlistConditions).

# Users that can use the semantic watchlist.
$wgGroupPermissions['*']['semanticwatch']=false;$wgGroupPermissions['user']['semanticwatch']=true;$wgGroupPermissions['autoconfirmed']['semanticwatch']=true;$wgGroupPermissions['bot']['semanticwatch']=false;$wgGroupPermissions['sysop']['semanticwatch']=true;

Each user can view changes to properties they watch on Special:SemanticWatchlist, which looks and works similar to the regular watchlist. Items that have not been viewed yet on the watchlist will be indicated as 'NEW'.

Each user can manage which watchlist groups they follow via their user preferences. They can also choose if they want to receive email notifications or not. These preferences can be found on Special:Preferences, which is linked at the right top of the page in most skins for logged in users.

The watchlist groups can be managed via the Special:WatchlistConditions page by people that have the 'semanticwatchgroups' right, by default only administrators. Each group has a name, which allows users to easily recognize the groups in their preferences, and a single category, namespace or concept it covers. Only changes to properties on pages in this category, namespace or concept will be shown to users watching this group. Each group also has a list of properties, which further restricts what property changes should be shown to the user.

Semantic Watchlist is fully internationalized. Translation of Semantic Watchlist messages is done through translatewiki.net. The translation for this extension can be found here. To add language values or change existing ones, you should create an account on translatewiki.net, then request permission from the administrators to translate a certain language or languages on this page (this is a very simple process). Once you have permission for a given language, you can log in and add or edit whatever messages you want to in that language.